Equestrian Fortress 2: The Gray Connection
by Arclight-Zero
Summary: Magic mirrors seem to be a thing for travelling between places but such a device could only lead to further conflict as blood, steel, and magic collide beyond the battlefields of Mann Co. Join the mercenaries on an adventure into a new world where they would learn that friendship is as important as sticking a knife into the back of a robot hellbent on conquering Equestria.


**Equestrian Fortress 2: The Gray Connection**

**Chapter 1**

_Redmond and Blutarch were both sent to hell in the end and Mann Co. remains under the firm control of Gray Mann. Out of work and not wanting to do anything else, Tavish Degroot (RED Demoman) remained unemployed and spent most of his time in a local watering hole and his not-so-shanty hut. For one-and-a-half years, Tavish made the bar his home and his bottle of scrumpy was his only friend. One day, he receives a surprise visit from an old friend._

* * *

But first, a little prologue about a certain magician

* * *

"At last, Merasmus has escaped injustice!" Merasmus shouted triumphantly while emerging from a hole that he dug. "With this spoon. No prison can hold me," he added while holding up a bent rusty old spoon.

He was right outside the prison walls and the guards have yet to sound the alarm. Merasmus was glad that his illusion spell was working fine though he had doubts it would fool the guards for too long. The illusion double of his tend to not move and whenever he tried to make it do something normal, it would just immolate. Imperfect as it was, the double served its purpose. Merasmus loved to gloat about how a genius he was but now was not the time to do so. After closing up the hole which he used to escape, he decided to walk home to his castle. Without his staff, there was no way he could do taxing spells such as teleporting.

"There is no distance too far for Merasmus. I shall go back home...by walking," he said.

The first and foremost of his agenda now was to take revenge on RED Soldier for putting him into this mess. He could think of a thousand and two ways to kill that no good son of a mother goose but Merasmus was happy with turning his head into a bomb and making him run around the castle until it exploded. That would teach him to mess with the world's most powerful magician (or so he thinks about himself). If only he had his staff, he could just teleport home in a flash and bombify Soldier's head on the spot. If only he could remember where he kept that blasted Bombinomicon.

After only a couple of minutes of walking, Merasmus was already feeling tired and his legs were aching badly. He bent over to catch his breath while cursing himself for not exercising often.

"Oh...my knees...and ankles," he groaned. "I need healing magic. And aspirin."

The road was a straight drive to Edinburgh but midnight was not the time for drivers to be showing up on a dark road in the middle of nowhere. Even if Merasmus could hitch a ride back to the city, he could never fit in a car because he was too tall and his skull hat would get in the way. Come to think of it, Merasmus never rode in a car before because he always relied on levitation and teleportation magic to move around.

"Merasmus...doesn't need...cars...or trucks," he said between pants.

It was at this moment that he heard the loud engines of a bus coming from behind him. The road in front of him was illuminated by the bus's headlamps and it slowly got brighter and the engines louder as the bus approached him.

"But I could use a bus," Merasmus muttered.

* * *

And we're back to the present situation at hand

* * *

It was not a place a normal person would call home but to Tavish Degroot (a.k.a. RED Demoman), it was better than living in a stinky old dumpster. The wooden hut he built just outside of Ullapool was big enough to house him and his weapons left over from his days as a mercenary. His family had been sympathetic enough to make the hut liveable and provided him with all the basic necessities he needed. Tavish wanted to live in Degroot Keep but a bunch of squirrels had claimed it for themselves a year earlier and they were surprisingly defensive. One of them nearly popped his good eye out with a stick when he tried to charge into the keep. After several days of fruitless attacks with swords and grenades (along with some gunpowder-filled nuts and a dynamite pumpkin pie), Tavish gave up.

Gracious was his family but they did not welcome him into their home because he was grown up. Tavish had no qualms because this hut had all he needed including running water, a bed, and a workbench for him to tinker with the ample amount of scrap metal he collected. The coat hanger had a myriad of hats which he found rather endearing but on the very top of the hanger was the Degroot family crown. It always reminded him who he was: a descendent of Prince Tavish, loud, handsome, brave, and drunk. Somehow, the prince seemed a lot like him and he wondered if he was the prince incarnate. Prince Tavish, according to his family, had a love for gunpowder weapons which he got from a Chinese merchant while on a crusade in Arabia. He was also the founder of Ullapool Caber Tossing using dynamite sticks.

Demoman spent most of his days thinking about how great his ancestor was and how many grand adventures he had been on. From the crusades in the Middle East to skirmishes with the English, it seemed like Prince Tavish had a lot of tales to tell. He even wrote an aptly named storybook called _My Greatest Adventures to the Greatest Reaches of Earth with the Greatest of People_ which featured tales of his adventures and exploits. Most were believable (it's up to you to decide) but one story struck him odd. Prince Tavish claimed he found a magical mirror in Jerusalem which he brought home after ditching King Richard's forces. It sent him to a world far beyond human imagination and it was so unreal that the prince removed one of his eye to see if it was deceiving him. The world was filled with talking creatures, many of them being nicer than humans.

Demoman took an old copy of Prince Tavish's book to read and he flipped to the chapter named _The Wonderful World of Equestria_. He reread it again, looking for clues about how he got to this Equestria. Unfortunately, Prince Tavish was rather brief in his description about how to utilise the magic mirror and said nothing beyond "waiting for four moon cycles". Tavish tapped the yellowed book softly with his thick finger, wondering about this magic mirror. There was no illustration to show how the magic mirror looked like so he assumed it looked like any ordinary antique mirror, like the one hanging above the toilet sink. He went to it and touched it, examined it, and removed it from the wall so he could take a closer look. After a while, Tavish was convinced the mirror was nothing more than a dusty old mirror.

"It's probably a fake story," Demoman said with a dismissive wave.

With nothing else to do, he sat down at the table and unboxed a Mann Co. crate that had been delivered to him just a few hours ago. When he found a jar with yellow liquid in it, Tavish sighed loudly and tossed it out the window. He recognised what it was and he had no use for it. The jar landed on soft dirt outside with a dull thud. Bored, he grabbed a bottle of scrumpy and drank it like it was water. While he was halfway through the bottle, there were three knocks on his hut door. Not feeling like standing up, Tavish continued drinking his scrumpy until...

"Oi, open up, you drunk!"

Demoman nearly spat out his precious scrumpy when he heard the voice of an Australian outside. He stood up quickly and haphazardly tossed aside the scrumpy bottle while running towards the door. Tavish unbolted it, turned the doorknob, and pulled back the door. Standing there were the familiar faces of Sniper and Engineer, both wearing their mercenary uniform as well. Sniper held the jar of yellow liquid in his right hand that was undoubtedly the one Tavish threw out earlier.

"Nobody throws out a perfectly good bottle of jarate, mate" Sniper said with a crooked smile. "It's vintage too."

"Wha?" Demoman muttered. "What's so good about vintage piss?"

"A lot of things," Sniper answered.

Demoman nodded his head. "Yeah, whatever you say, laddie," he said. He then turned his attention to Engineer and noticed he was carrying his toolbox and a piece of rolled up paper. "So, what're you lads doing here anyway? Are we hired again?"

"Heck no," Engineer said with a frown. "But we got a new job and we'd like you to join us."

Immediately, Demoman's expression lightened up. He quickly invited the two inside and closed the door. The table was quickly cleared and Demoman used two Mann Co. crates as chairs for his guests. After they were seated, he offered the two some scrumpy but they declined.

"So what's this about? What's this new job?" Tavish asked.

"Well..." Sniper started while rubbing the back of his head. "It involves a certain familiar person that we encountered before."

"And the police wants him dead or alive," Engineer added.

He unrolled the piece of paper he had with him and to Demoman's surprise, it was a wanted poster of Merasmus. It seemed like he had escaped prison a day ago and the police had a one million pound bounty on him.

"So you want to become bounty hunters," Tavish said.

"That's right, partner. We got this poster from Miss Pauling. Odd that she's still around even though Gray Mann is actively hunting down former TF Industries employees," Engineer remarked while rubbing his chin.

"We thought we'd keep this between ourselves so we don't have to split the money too much," said Sniper. "With my tracking expertise, Dell Conagher's brains –"

"Wait...your name is Dell Conagher?"

"Yep, I've always been Dell Conagher but I prefer if ya'll call be Engineer. Sorry, some old habits die hard."

"If you're curious, I'll be plain old Mr. Mundy," Sniper muttered. "Anyway, as I was saying before I was interrupted, with my tracking skills, Engineer's brains, and your knowledge of the area, we can track down Merasmus, bag him, and claim our reward."

Maybe his mother could stop nagging at him now for being idle all the time. This was a job opportunity too good to pass up. Never mind a split in cash, as long as he had something to do, he was happy. Bagging Merasmus would definitely not be easy but if anything, Tavish liked a challenge. They had beaten him before and they could do it again, provided he does not turn their heads into bombs or send Monoculus after them, which in that case, they would get the short end of the stick. The mercenaries were experienced in battle but Merasmus was still powerful enough to face off against 3 of them.

"Looks like we're gonna need a lot of firepower," said Demoman. "I've got me things here but what about you two?"

"This is where my new invention would come in handy," Dell said with a smile.

He led Sniper and Demoman outside to show them what he had made. He dropped the toolbox onto the ground and waited for it to deploy. Unlike the usual buildings that Dell built, the building that deployed from the toolbox looked a lot different with wooden frames and all. When it was fully deployed, the building resembled an upgrade station that Mann Co. used during the robot attacks. Engineer had a smug grin on his face, proud of his new invention and happy at the fact that his two compatriots were awestruck.

"Like what you see?" he asked. "I call it the Portable Upgrade Booth. It features teleportation storage, allowing us to access our weapon cache no matter where we are. Watch."

Engineer reached his gloved hand into the booth and fumbled around until he grabbed something and pulled. Out came a Frontier Justice shotgun.

"I dragged it all the way from Texas. Sniper here can grab his weapon from Australia too."

"I must say, this is indeed a wonderful thing," Sniper said with a nod.

"Now we can hunt that damn wizard."

"Magician, actually," Demoman corrected.

"Um...I don't see the difference."

"Well, one's a magical creator and the other is a creator of magic."

"That doesn't make sense," Sniper said.

Engineer shook his head. "Whatever Merasmus is, we have to stop him. Are you in, Demoman?"

* * *

But where has Merasmus gone to?

* * *

"Soldier," Merasmus said menacingly. "I curse your penis for a thousand years!"

"Noooo! Not my painis!"

"Suffer the wrath of Merasmus! Penisbus Merasbus BULALALALALA!"

No, he was not cursing Soldier but he was playing in a room filled with voodoo dolls that only looked like voodoo dolls but had no actual power over the victims. Earlier, Merasmus had tried to take back his castle but the raccoons threw him out again. Frustrated, he made his way into the basement via a side door outside where he was stuck in since that day he came back. The raccoons had no idea there was a basement and Soldier was none the wiser. He waited for the raccoons to leave but there was no such luck. He even tried sneaking into the castle while in a box but it did not work. He wondered how a certain snake person actually snuck past people that way.

His belongings were all in his room at the upper floor, including his staff. If only he could just teleport up there, he would be unstoppable. Curse those blasted raccoons and Soldier, Merasmus thought angrily while breaking the voodoo doll of Soldier into two. He wanted to scream but doing so would only attract the attention of the raccoons. Nothing was going to stop him though and he was not about to give up easily. Then, a thought came to his mind which made him felt stupid for not thinking about it earlier. Not too long ago, before moving in to Tom Jones's place, Merasmus had learned a rather simple travelling spell which involved mirrors. A simple incantation and he could travel from one place to another via mirrors. Mistakes were made (travelling to the ladies' room) but it was a tried and true method. If could find a mirror in the basement, he could reach his room easily. Then again...who puts a mirror in a creepy basement? Merasmus saw that there was a tall mirror located at a corner beside a pile of dusty old boxes and empty potion bottles.

It was odd. He did not recognise the mirror nor did he remember putting it there. The mirror's design had some Middle Eastern influence to it. When he touched it with his hand, he felt a charge run up his fingers like static electricity. It was definitely magical. Magic or not, he had to go grab his stuff and the conveniently-placed mirror provided him the perfect conduit to bypass the good-for-nothing raccoons. After muttering a few words, the mirror began to liquefy and swirl. Merasmus pushed his entire bodyweight against it and he sank into it. A bright flash emitted from the mirror and Merasmus was gone when the flash died down.

In his rat-infested room, the sole wall mirror began to glow and distort. Then, a hand reached put from it followed by Merasmus's whole body. He fell onto the wooden floor with a thud and grunted in pain as he landed on his head. Luckily for him, the mirror was not to high off the ground and was big enough for him to squeeze through. The magician was quick to change into his robes and he threw the inmate uniform into the fireplace. His fire spell made short work of it and left no trace of it. All that was left was a pile of ash.

"Merasmus is back in business," he said to himself while grabbing his staff from the weapons rack. "I shall have my revenge. But...there is something I must investigate first."

Merasmus grabbed some books, potions, and scrolls and stuffed them into a duffel bag. He grabbed the Bombinomicon too but wrapped it up in a piece of cloth before it could create a commotion. He cast a spell on the mirror and opened a dimensional gate like the one he used earlier.

"If I can't have my castle back, then I shall burn it down. You better start finding a new home, Soldier," Merasmus said with a dark chuckle. "Firestorm."

With a wave from his staff, the wooden floorboards in his room burst into flames while Merasmus stepped into the mirror. Once he was fully in it, the mirror solidified. He left behind him a burning castle with the raccoons fleeing for their lives as the entire place came down in a shower of embers and burning bricks.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Gravel Pit

* * *

"So...what's this about?" Gray Mann asked softly while approaching a whole that was being dug in the ground near Control Point C. "You better have a good reason having me come out here and make me miss my pedicure appointment."

"The surveyors have found something buried in there, sir," an Engineer robot replied in a mechanical voice.

"And what is that supposed to be?"

"See for yourself."

He stood by the edge of the hole and saw that it was rather deep. His robots were moving dirt from the bottom to the top while some of them were busy chiselling away hard dirt from an object that looked like some sort of mirror with intricately designed frames. Gray Mann raised an eyebrow and scratched his wrinkly forehead.

"That looks like a dumb old mirror, something that would probably interest my two dumb brothers instead. Still, I must admit that it has a rather...enigmatic feel to it," Gray Mann said.

"It emitted a power surge that disabled some of the robots a few hours back. We were shut down for a while."

Gray Mann nodded his head. "And I suppose it changed you all too? Because I don't remember creating advanced artificial intelligence that allows you to answer me like a normal human would."

The Engineer robot merely shrugged.

"Interesting," Gray Mann muttered. "If such an artefact can make you all respond and think intelligently, who knows what else it can do. Good work, maybe this trip is worth it after all. I'd like to take a closer look at it."

He was old and climbing down ladders was out of the question for him. So he had a Heavy robot carry him down to the bottom of the hole. Gray Mann's small size meant that he could fit into the Heavy robot's hand like a doll. His brothers loved to tease him for his small size but size meant nothing if one had a knife to stab the other in the back. As Gray Mann approached the artefact, the other robots stopped what they were doing and stepped aside.

"Magic...it's for those foolish mercenaries. I'm a man of science," he said to himself while touching the mirror frames. "Hmm, I think such a technology might be alien. It can be replicated," he added. Turning to his robots, he said in a loud voice, "I want this thing completely excavated and brought back to my lab in two hours."

The robots saluted and resumed their work. When he got out of the hole, the Engineer robot was there to greet him with a salute.

"Since you seem to have the most brains, I'd like you to oversee the excavation. Now, if you would excuse me, I've got a four o' clock appoint to attend to."

"It shall be done, sir."

Unknown to the midget of a man, the Engineer robot's eyes started to glow dark blue. As it watched Gray Mann enter his car, it talked in a rather deep and guttural voice.

"Oh, it will be done, Gray Mann. Just don't forget whose plans you're unwittingly accomplishing. The night eternal shall reign in both worlds."

* * *

To be continued in Chapter 2

* * *

_A/N: I love TF2 for its humour and story and at the same time, I enjoy watching MLP. Somehow, these two would make a good crossover story. So what's to be expected in this story? Robots, magic, Chucklenuts, ponies, nightmarish creatures, Painis Cupcake, Vagineer, and all sorts of strange and wonderful (deadly) characters. Also, I like to make references to funny TF2 videos. You'll definitely find several references to them._

_P.S.: The next chapter will see the three mercs going on a hunt for Merasmus. I'd love to hear from you guys on what their equipment should be and what cosmetics they're wearing. It can be an item set or a custom set you think would be interesting._


End file.
